Benefits of Computer Telephony Integration
Over the past decade, the pace of technology advancement has outpaced the ability of human operators to properly manage the varying array of communications inputs that have to be managed in all manners of business. Whether at a telecommunications center or at an emergency dispatch center, utilization of computer telephony integration (CTI) technologies can significantly improve operator performance and increase overall efficiency call centers. Ultimately, the goal of deploying a CTI application is to reduce the overall cost of operations through improving per-operator efficiency.
#1 Computer Telephony Benefit – Efficiency Improvements
Computer Telephony Integration systems provide operators with the ability to handle a greater call volume, but saving time that was previously expended on looking up customer information after the call had been received. With the automatic presentation of data to the operator based on the incoming phone number and menu options chosen by the consumer before the operator is live on the telephone line, the total time of a phone transaction is reduced to handling the specific question or need that the customer has called regarding. Additionally, the operator saves post-call processing time, buy being able to enter data directly into the database record of the customer into their on-screen account record presented through the CTI system. In the case of emergency operators, computer telephony integration systems save significant time in dispatching assistance to those in need through the display of GPS-accurate positioning data from the person calling the operator. Additionally, the emergency operator can accomplish the dispatching of various support services from their computer monitor while monitoring the on-going situation on the telephone.
#2 Computer Telephony Benefit – Improved Ergonomics
Prior to the advent and wide-spread deployment of computer telephony integration systems, the equipment required to accomplish the same tasks would take-up a significantly greater amount of space in the work-place. Modern CTI systems, have greater ergonomic value than their predecessors, and in most cases take up no more room than that required of a traditional desktop computer for the operator. Ergonomic improvements in computer telephony integration systems also combine the ability to handle phone, email, Internet, video, and fax communications from one computing station vice having to have separate devices for each form of communication.
#3 Computer Telephony Benefit- Reduced Staff Turnover
For call centers that conduct business over a 24 hour time-frame, there has been a historical loss of information and efficiency when staff turns over at the conclusion of a six or eight hour work shift. Manual turnover logs were created as ameans to combat the loss of efficiency seen as a result of required turnover periods, however, these just do not fully make-up for the change-out of personnel. Computer telephony integration software has been demonstrated to be one of the best mitigators for the staff turnover issue due to the real-time nature of the CTI application software and automatic data logging features associated with the CTI programs. In the past, if a phone operator at an emergency call center may have forgotten about calls made earlier in his or her shift, modern CTI software makes it possible for operators to view and read correspondence received over the course of the previous shift or day’s worth of calls to the center. As a result, the impact of loss of information at key staff turnover points has been reduced, though a good turnover is still assessed as significantly aiding the new staff member for keeping pace with ongoing operations.
#4 Computer Telephony Benefit – Flexibility and Growth
Computer telephony integration applications are now designed to be scalable without having to pay for significant program updates. Industry has been able to achieveportability and scale in their designs through the wide-spread usage and support of the computer telecommunications support application ( CTSA) software standards. By using common interfaces across competing companies, the business owner is no longer held to using one company for the lifespan of their CTI system and can grow operations with significantly lower overhead over time. Additionally, new applications and features can be added to a computer telephony integration system in real-time without interrupting on-going business operations. Add-ons such as computer aided design programs (CAD), radio communication interfaces, and real time messaging systems are some examples that business finds a need for once a CTI application becomes embedded in the company’s day-to-day operations.
#5 Computer Telephony Benefit – Monetary Savings
Both the public and private sector have realized significant monetary savings through the usage of computer telephony integration systems. Overall, the total cost of owning a CTI system is proven to be less than acquiring applications that specialize in individual communications features with integration work done separately at the corporate level. Additionally, the cost-savings realized through the reduction of wasted time by operators results in less dead-time per operator permitting a smaller work-force to be retained and greater throughput of transactions to be accomplished.
In summary, with the explosion of the number of communications mediums that private and public sector call centers must face, the usage of acomputer telephony integration suite has almost become a must in the current business environment. In order to keep pace with the competition, a CTI allows a corporation to best leverage the talent working for the company while increasing overall business efficiency.
Computer Telephony Integration Providers
Computer Telephony Integration is the interaction and control between an organization’s managing computer and phone systems. CTI applications are the technology which permit the transactions between the two systems to be integrated and help an organization realize increased efficiencies throughout their call center applications. Modern computer telephony integration providers software application suites provide the ability for a company to include email, web, fax, and video integration along with the traditional voice communications that were the foundation of CTI application support. There are a wide-range of computer telephony integration providers available on the marketplace. The following are five of the most well-known listed in alphabetic order.
#1 Computer Telephony Integration Provider – Actimax
Based in the U.K., Actimax has been active in the Computer Telephony Integration Industry for over 30 years. They will provide and end-to-end review of an organization’s on-going call-center and CTI activities and provide a comprehensive report on how they can optimize operations with their services. Actimax can be used for the company that hasn’t upgraded their CTI applications since “Screen Pop” was cutting edge or they can be utilized to help an organization upgrade to the latest technology available on the marketplace. Most recently, Actimax has been specializing in the integration of video conferencing at the workplace for organizations that have a need for video communications to augment other forms of data exchange.
#2 Computer Telephony Integration Provider – Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Microsoft provides Computer Telephony Integration support embedded in Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition. The underlying CTI protocol used is Microsoft’s TAPI CTI protocol which uses two sub-layers of support providers to enable the CTI support: Telephony integration and multi-media support. The CTI suite included with the Professional edition of Windows 2000 Professional provides access and control to the manipulation of audio and video streams of teleconferences as well as the DirectShow API for manipulation of streaming media. These features complement the standard telephony interface of Windows 2000 Professional with the organization’s phone system and underlying databases. Additionally, the Microsoft product can enable device sharing within an organization, further leveraging the ergonomic benefit of the CTI application within an organization. Windows 2000 Professional also permits existing applications to be directly associated with new telephony devices added to the network without resetting the entire network. Depending on the inherent Information Technology infrastructure resident at a company, the Microsoft CTI suite can be installed using distance support. If there is no resident IT expert at the organization, the CTI installation will have to be sub-contracted through an alternate CTI provider.
#3 Computer Telephony Integration Provider – Alliance Infotech
Alliance Infotech is one of the leading Computer Telephony Integration providers in India. They specialize in providing unified messaging solutions while using commercial grade CTI hardware components to fully upgrade businesses to scalable enterprise solutions. The Unified Messaging interface provided with the Alliance Infotech CTI solution permits the user to see of their their applicable messages (mobile voice, desk voice, email, fax, SMS, MMS, Tweets, etc) at the business or remotely through VPN access. The Alliance CTI solutions are used in both the business and service industry’s and have a world-wide reach with their customer-base of their CTI products. Unlike other CTI providers, their solution is one of a few that has proven to be scalable across all forms of Enterprise communication as well as allowing the employee or manager to take the office with them on the road without a loss of capability.
#4 Computer Telephony Integration Provider – Fujitsu
Fujitsu is one of the leading Computer Integration Providers located in Singapore. Their CTI solutions incorporate Voice Over IP (VOIP) capability for an organization’s phone usage enabling the entire infrastructure to be Internet-based. Additionally, Fujitsu’s CTI platform enables an organization to permit employees to access their account on the road as well as take their voice capability with them through the use of secure phone/fax networks built in to the CTI infrastructure The Fujitsu solution incorporates an on-line conference center that has real-time exchange of voice, imagery, and data while in conferencing mode.
#5 Computer Telephony Integration Provider – Voxeo
Voxeo is a U.S. based enterprise provider of Computer Telephony Integration solutions. They focus on aiding organization in lowering costs by automating tasks for consumers by integrating their Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system with an organizations network. They are also one of the first CTI providers to deploy VoiceXML and CCXML technologies that permit the underlying data exchange to be separated from enterprise technologies using CTSA standards-based protocols. Voxeo’s solutions are also scalable, permitting an organization to focus on the aspects of Computer Telephony Integration that are best suited for deployment based on the business’s day-to-day functions and overall goals.
Computer Telephony Integration
Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) is one of the most exciting technologies to have matured in the last decade. Long past is the time that Computer Telephony Systems and the associated infrastructure were only tailored for big corporation’s call centers. Whether its the embedded Video chat capability in your Instant Messenger at home or the ability to join in a multiple-person teleconference on a web-enabled mobile phone, computer telephony integration applications are now tailored across the spectrum of home and business uses. As mobile, high-speed bandwidth becomes more accessible to consumers, computer telephony integration applications will continue to expand their reach into all facets of society.
Genesis of Computer Telephony Integration – The Call Center
The Computer Telephony Integration technology that is deployed to industry today has its origins in the the 1960′s era call centers. When call centers became popular for being the primary conduit for marketing and sales outlets, there was an identified loss of efficiency in the dead time experienced by a majority of the center’s operators. Then, “Screen Pop” technology entered the picture and operator efficiency increased. “Screen Pop” integrates a company’s phone and computing systems so that operators have pertinent customer information displayed on their workstation for an in-coming phone call to include name, phone number, customer identification, past sales history, and other useful information. As “Screen Pop” has matured, it has also become embedded with automated phone dialing systems to further optimize an operator’s work time at the call center and is still in use today.
Why Use Computer Telephony Integration Technology?
With the advance of technology over the past several decades, human operators have found it challenging to be able to properly manage all of the information flow received at call centers and other places of business. As a result, choosing a computer telephony package that fits the scale of the business has been proven to significantly increase overall efficiency of sales, marketing, and in some cases- research operations. Computer Telephony technology provides several benefits for an organization to include: 1 – Efficiency improvements, 2 – Improved work-place ergonomics, 3 – Reduced errors at staff turnover periods, 4 – Flexibility and Growth, and 5 – Monetary Savings. Industry has found, however, that for all of the good that a quality Computer Telephony Integration system can do for a company, simply buying a new system to have the latest technology does not instantly equate to a larger bottom-line. Conducting a needs analysis prior to a major telephony system acquisition has become standard in the marketplace, and as a result most of the major providers also provide this type of service in order to scale the telephony package appropriately.
Telephony Applications in the Home – Voice Over IP
One of the sub-components of computer telephony applications that just wasn’t quite mature enough during the Dot-Com bust of the early 2000′s was Voice Over IP (VOIP) technology. Those days are gone now with the quality of service of VOIP being “good enough” to use in-place of a permanent home or business telephone system. The cost savings range from $40-100 USD per family to the thousands of dollars range for corporate accounts. Vonnage and Skype are two of the well-known International carriers of VOIP phone accounts with numerous other regional competitors available. Coupled with the exponential deployment and use of wireless 3G Internet services, the days of land-line telephone systems may be numbered. Another recent advancement in VOIP technology that has made it more attractive as an option when choosing a telephony system has been the capability to include voicemail as a .wav or other file attachment of a user’s account further integrating the telephone with the computer.
The Future of Computer Telephony Integration
The future of computer telephony integration lies based in the continued evolution of the VOIP standard and associated reduction of costs to industry as well as consumers. By building on an open-standards based architecture that has been maturing since the early 1990′s, computer telephony integration providers are able to provide scalable systems architectures that permit tomorrow’s technologies to be plugged in to legacy systems without dramatically increasing costs for company’s to upgrade. Telephony applications will continue to be developed for the consumer as well as business and likely see further integration with the standard modes of transportation (automobiles, aircraft, and public transit) to the point that the only way one won’t be connected to a telephony system in some fashion will be if they just don’t choose to be.